NEW    WINK   NOT    TO    HE    PUT   INTO    OLD   BOTTLES.' 


A.  SEBMON 


§jb<« 


m  a 


III 


On  Friday,  February  28th,  1862, 


Being  the  Day  of 


HUMILIATION,   FASTING,   AND  PRAYER, 


Appointed  by  the  President  of  the  Confederate  States. 


BY  THE 


Ht.  Rev.  STEPHEN  ELLIOTT,  D.  D., 

Rector  of  Christ  Church,  and  Bisnoi-  of  thk 
Diocese  of  Georgia. 


"And  no  man  putteth  new  wine  into  old  bottles." — -St.  Luke  V.:  21. 


SAVANNAH: 

STEAM  POWER  PRESS  OF  JOHX  M.    COOPER   A    CO. 

1862. 


"NEW  WINE  NOT  TO  BE  PUT  INTO  OLD  BOTTLES." 


A  SERMON 


On  Friday,  February  28th,  1862, 

Being  the  Day  of 

HUMILIATION,   FASTING,   AND  PRAYEK, 
Appninted  by  the  President  of  the  Confederate  States. 

BY  THE 

ttt.  Rev.  STEPHEN  EJL.LIOTT,  D.  D., 

RECTOS  of  Christ  Church,  and  Bishop  Of  the 
Diocese  of  Georgia. 


"And.  no  man  putteth  new  wine  into  old  bottles.'^ST.  Luke  V.:  27 ', 


SAVANNAH: 

STEAM  POWER  PRESS  OP  JOHN  M.  COOPER  4  CO. 

1862. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2012  with  funding  from 

University  of  North  Carolina  at  Chapel  Hil 


http://archive.org/details/newwinenottobepuOOelli 


$<r  tit*  <ts>\tv$%  af  t\xt  §mm  art  ®m$w. 


The  President  of  the  Confederate  States  having  issued  his  Proclamation 
appointing  Friday,  the  28th  of  February,  instant,  as  a  day  of  solemn  humiliation 
before  God,  in  view  of  His  manifold  mercies  towards  us  as  a  nation  and  of  our 
great  unworthiness  of  them — 

Now  therefore,  I,  Stephen  Elliott,  Bishop  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church  in  the  Diocese  of  Georgia,  do  direct  the  Clergy  of  the  said  Diocese  to 
invite  their  congregations  to  assemble  together  in  their  respective  places  of 
worship,  and  to  keep  the  Fast  before  the  Lord  in  all  humility  of  mind  and  spirit, 
and  while  deprecating  the  wrath  of  God  for  our  past  sins,  to  invoke  His  blessing 
upon  the  new  Government  which  has  been  so  successfully  inaugurated. 

Upon  the  occasion  of  this  Fast,  the  Clergy  will  use  the  subjoined  service : 

Morning  Prayer  as  usual  to  the  Psalter. 

Psalms  for  the  day — the  13th,  56th  and  94th. 

1st  Lesson — II  Kings  ch.  18,  from  v.  17,  and  ch.  19  to  v.  8. 

2d  Lesson— I  Peter,  ch.  2  vv.  11—18. 

Use  the  whole  Litany,  and  immediately  before  the  General  Thanksgiving, 
introduce'the  Prayers  following: 

PRAYER. 

0  most  mighty  Lord  God,  who  reignest  over  all  the  kingdoms  of  men ;  who 
hast  power  in  Thy  hand  to  cast  down  and  to  raise  up,  to  save  Thy  servants  and 
to  rebuke  their  enemies,  let  Thine  ears  be  now  open  unto  our  prayers  and  Thy 
merciful  eyes  upon  our  trouble  and  our  danger.  0  Lord,  do  Thou  judge  our 
cause  in  righteousness  and  mercy,  and  wherein  soever  we  have  offended  against 
Thee,  or  injured  our  neighbor,  make  us  truly  sensible  of  it  and  deeply  penitent 
for  it.  "We  humbly  confess  that  we  are  unworthy  of  the  manifold  goodness 
vouchsafed  us  in  this  struggle  for  our  rights,  yet  we  are  bold,  because  of  Thy 
long  suffering,  to  pray  for  the  continuance  of  it  and  to  supplicate  Thy  blessing 
upon  us  and  our  arms.  Cover  the  heads  of  our  soldiers  in  the  day  of  battle,  and 
send  Thy  fear  before  them,  that  our  enemies  may  flee  at  their  presence.  Establish 
us  in  the  rights  Thou  has  given  us,  in  our  Government  and  in  our  Laws,  in  our 
Religion,  and  in  all  our  holy  Ministries.  The  race  is  not  to  the  swift,  nor  the 
battle  to  the  strong,  but  our  trust  is  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  our  God.  Hear  us, 
0  Lord,  for  the  glory  of  Thy  name  and  for  Thy  truth's  sake,  through  Jesus 
Christ  our  Lord.     Amen, 


PRAY  ER. 

Almighty  God,  who  rulest  over  all  the  nations  of  the  earth  and  disposest  of 
them  according  to  Thy  good  pleasure,  we  yield  Thee  unfeigned  thanks  that  Thou 
hast  been  pleased  to  bring  these  Confederate  States  in  safety  to  the  close  of  the 
first  year  of  their  political  existence,  and  that  Thou  hast  preserved  Thy  servant, 
the  President  of  this  Confederacy,  in  health  of  body  and  vigor  of  mind  to  the 
commencement  of  his  administration  as  the  Chief  Magistrate  of  our  now  settled 
government.  Let  Thy  wisdom  be  his  guide,  and  let  Thine  arm  strengthen  him ; 
let  justice,  truth  apd  holiness,  and  all  those  virtues  that  adorn  the  Christian  pro- 
fession flourish  in  his  days;  direct  all  his  counsels  and  endeavors  to  Thy  glory 
and  the  welfare  of  these  States ;  and  give  us  grace  to  obey  his  government 
cheerfully  and  willingly  for  conscience  sake,  that  neither  our  sinful  passions  nor 
our  private  interests  may  disappoint  his  cares  for  the  public  good;  let  his  admin- 
istration be  prosperous  and  honorable,  and  crown  him  with  immortality  in  the 
world  to  come  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.     Amen. 


$  txman. 


St.  Luke,  Ch.  Y.,  vv.  37-39.     "And  no  man  putteth  new 

wine  into  old  bottles,  el&e  the  new  wine  will  burst  the  bottles  and 
be  spilled,  and  the  bottles  shall  perish. 

"But  new  wine  must  be  put  into  new  bottles,  and  both  are  pre- 
served. 

"No  man  also  having  drunk  old  wine  straightway  desireth  new : 
for  he  saith,  the  old  is  better." 

The  meeting  of  Congress  and  the  inauguration  of  a  Presi- 
dent under  our  permanent  Constitution,  have  ushered  us  upon 
a  new  era  in  our  national  history,  and  in  the  wise  judgment 
of  our  Chief  Magistrate,  afford  a  fitting  opportunity  for  once 
more  humbling  ourselves  before  the  mercy-seat,  and  invoking 
the  blessing  of  the  Christian's  God  upon  our  new  Government 
and  upon  the  conduct  of  our  civil  and  military  affairs.  We 
are  learning  the  sublime  truth  of  our  daily  dependence  upon 
God,  and  we  are  learning  it,  where  only  it  can  be  learned,  in 
the  school  of  adversity  and  affliction.  Happy  nation  !  which 
frequently  and  hopefully  bows  itself  in  prayer  and  suppli- 
cation at  the  throne  of  Grace,  for  it  is  at  least  an  outward  and 
visible  sign  that  we  hear  the  rod  and  who  has  appointed  it ! 

At  such  a  moment  it  is  well  for  us  to  muse  in  the  wild 

x 

career  of  action  and  consider  profoundly  the  great  principles 
which  must  lie  at  the  foundation  of  our  national  structure, 
ere  we  may  feel  assured  that  it  is  builded  upon  a  rock.  It  is 
indeed,  as  Jeremy  Taylor  expresses  it,  meditating  upon  the 
outskirts  of  a  camp,  but  that  is  better  than  not  to  meditate  at 
all.  Our  whole  future  will  depend  upon  the  first  years  of  our 
political  existence,  and  we  must  weigh  our  position  now,  even 
amid  the  tumult  and  confusion  of  war,  or  let  it  depend  upon 
chance  or  fortune.     All  nations  which  come  into  existence 


H  A   SERMON. 

at  this  late  period  of  the  world  must  be  born  amid  the  storm 
of  revolution,  and  must  win  their  way  to  a  place  in  history 
through  the  baptism  of  blood.  And  this,  because  no  people 
would  ever  throw  off  a  beneficent  government,  and  an  oppres- 
sive one  will  always  strive  to  perpetuate  its  tyranny  by  arms 
and  violence.  If  we  wait,  therefore,  for  peace,  ere  we  ask 
counsel  of  God  and  wisdom  from  His  throne,  we  shall  permit 
the  moulding  process  of  our  future  to  have  been  finished  ere 
we  examine  the  form  and  shape  which  it  is  likely  to  put  on. 
Our  new  wine  will  have  found  its  way  into  old  bottles  ere  we 
shall  have  duly  considered  the  folly  of  such  a  course,  and  our 
labor  and  suffering  may  have  been  in  vain  and  for  nought. 

We  look  very  superficially  at  the  revolution  through  which 
we  are  passing,  when  we  consider  merely  the  immediate 
causes  which  have  produced  it,  and  go  no  further  back  in  our 
analysis.  To  say  that  the  movement  which  has  brought  into 
existence  the  new  Government,  whose  inauguration  we  have 
just  commemorated,  was  made  necessary  by  the  avarice  and 
fanaticism  of  an  ever  increasing  sectional  majority,  is  to  speak 
the  truth ;  but  that  measure  of  it  only  which  lies  upon  the 
surface.  Sterner  questions  lie  behind  that.  How  happened 
it  that  among  a  Christian  people,  of  Anglo-Saxon  lineage, 
trained  in  all  the  great  principles  of  English  liberty,  with 
every  appliance  of  knowledge  and  experience— experience, 
moreover,  worked  out  by  their  own  ancestors — such  vices 
should  so  early  have  gained  such  supremacy?  How  did  it 
come  to  pass  that  constitutional  law  should  so  completely  have 
lost  its  power,  that  the  moral  sense  of  the  nation  should  have 
been  so  drugged,  that  its  Christianity  should  have  exerted  no 
vital  influence  over  its  actions?  Seventy  years  to  terminate  a 
nation's  existence!  Why  Borne  existed  eight  hundred  years 
before  she  reached  the  culminating  point  of  her  greatness. 
It  is  now  a  thousand  years  since  England  commenced  her 
career  of  power  and  of  fame.  Eussia  is  only  "mewing  her 
mighty  youth,"  although  she  has  already  outlived  our  age  by 
centuries.  By  what  fatality  is  it  that  we  have  become  effete 
at  so  early  a  period ;  that  we  were  corrupt  to  the  core  ere  we 
were  well  out  of  the  bud  ;  that,  like  a  young  spendthrift,  we 


A  SB&tfOtf.  7 

have  wasted  health,  vigor,  virtue,  in  our  earliest  manhood, 
and  are  already  decrepid  and  breaking  up  under  the  diseases 
which  belong  only  to  old  age?  Alas !  that  we  should  have  to 
answer  such  appalling  questions ;  to  answer  them,  too,  in  the 
midst  of  the  tumultuous  and  terrible  results  which  they  have 
naturally  brought  about  But  they  must  be  answered,  or  else 
we  shall  gain  nothing  from  the  revolution  through  which  we 
are  passing  ;  shall  reap  no  fruits  from  the  seed  which  we  are 
fructifying  with  the  rich  blood  of  our  children. 

It  will  not  do  to  say  that  we  were  only  the  offshoot  of  a 
long  existing  nation,  and  that  we  came  into  being  with  its  in- 
firmities cleaving  to  us,  and  not  with  the  vigor  of  a  fresh  and 
buoyant  life.  'Tis  true,  husbandmen  say  that  a  graft  from  a 
tree,  however  young  and  living  it  may  be,  will  droop  and 
wither  when  its  parent  stem  shall  perish ;  but  alas  for  us,  our 
Fatherland  is  still  mighty  in  its  power,  is  still  overshadow- 
ing the  world  with  its  wings  of  protection  and  of  glory.  We 
have  not  decayed  because  England  has  decayed.  We  have 
not  fallen  to  pieces  like  a  house  builded  upon  the  sand,  be- 
cause the  winds  and  the  waves  have  swept  her  into  oblivion, 
She  is  stronger  to-day  in  her  law,  in  her  religion,  in  her  arms, 
in  her  arts,  than  when  we  tore  ourselves  away  from  her 
motherhood.  She  yet  rejoices  in  all  the  freedom  which  has 
been  her  birthright  for  centuries,  and  evinces  no  token  that 
her  eye  is  dim  or  her  natural  force  abated.  If  we  would  ex- 
cuse our  early  decrepitude,  we  must  find  some  other  reason 
than  one  drawn  from  our  having  sprung  from  a  people  which 
had  reached  the  spring  tide  of  its  glory.  If  the  graft  has 
withered,  we  must  rather  look  for  its  blight  from  the  stock 
upon  which  it  has  been  grafted,  for  the  parent  stem,  the  oak 
of  old  England,  still  spreads  its  arms  in  ever  increasing  gran- 
deur, defiant  of  the  storms  which  rage  incessant  around  its 
incorrupt  heart. 

Nor  can  we  truly  affirm  that  our  early  decay  has  sprung 
from  the  rapid  influx  upon  our  shores  of  foreign  elements, 
which  have  overborne  the  native  influence  and  subjected  it  to 
its  control.  The  tides  of  avarice  and  of  fanaticism  which  have 
swept  over  our  fair  heritage  and  changed  it  into  a  desolation, 


8  A  SERMON. 

have  flowed  in  upon  us  from  the  most  ancient  and  best  civi- 
lized of  our  States,  and  have  ever  found  their  increasing 
momentum  from  those  peculiarly  native  fountains.  The 
Europeans  who  have  settled  the  western  States,  and  who 
have  filled  our  cities,  have  been  finally  made  their  tools,  but 
only  after  they  had  been  deceived  and  made  to  believe  that 
their  own  liberties  were  in  danger  from  the  slavery  of  the 
South.  They  have  given  power  to  the  destructive  flood  which 
has  borne  away  all  the  barriers  of  constitutional  law,  but  only 
as  a  lake  whose  waters  have  been  turned  by  human  art 
into  the  channels  of  the  natural  stream.  What  knew  they,  the 
simple-minded  peasants  of  Germany  and  Scandinavia,  of  our 
political  questions,  until  they  were  indoctrinated  by  the  pesti- 
lent demagogues  who  undertook  to  introduce  them  to  the  tree 
of  knowledge  ?  What  cared  they,  the  laughing,  careless  emi- 
grants from  the  green  fields  of  the  Emerald  Isle,  about  such 
points  as  have  wrecked  our  Union,  until  wily  politicians  sat, 
like  the  toad  at  the  ear  of  Eve,  and  whispered  sin  and  mischief 
to  their  untutored  souls  ?  The  disgrace  of  this  early  and  in- 
comparable corruption  is  our  own,  born  of  the  soil,  springing 
rank  from  the  principles  which  were  laid  at  the  basis  of  our 
political  nationality.  We  cannot  get  rid  of  it.  We  cannot 
shuffle  it  off  upon  those  who  are  as  innocent  of  it  as  a  deceived 
and  cheated  accessory  is  innocent  of  a  crime  into  which  he 
has  been  unwittingly  drawn.  We  must  bear  it  ourselves  in 
the  face  of  the  world  and  evince  our  shame  by  clearing  our 
skirts  of  it,  and  our  penitence,  by  putting  our  new  wine  into 
new  bottles. 

Nor  can  we  shield  ourselves  from  the  scorn  of  the  world  by 
affirming  that  this  revolution  has  arisen  out  of  political  causes 
alone,  and  not  out  of  moral  causes;  for  they  have  eyes  and 
can  see,  ears  and  can  hear,  minds  and  can  understand.  I 
affirm  that  this  revolution  was  as  much  a  moral  as  a  political 
necessity  ;  that  corruption  had  become  deep-seated  in  philoso- 
phy, in  letters,  in  ethics,  in  religion  as  well  as  in  politics; 
that  it  had  found  its  way  into  commerce  and  trade,  and 
finance  and  social  life ;  that  cunning  and  trickery  were  be- 
coming the  normal  conditions  of  intercourse,  and  that  morals 


A  SERMON.  9 

were  fast  losing  their  hold  upon  the  public  mind.  There  is 
no  instance  upon  record  of  such  a  rapid  moral  deterioration 
of  a  nation  as  has  taken  place  in  ours  in  the  last  forty  years. 
Growing  in  all  the  elements  of  political  and  economical  great- 
ness at  a  pace  unexampled  among  nations,  their  increase  was 
not  faster  than  the  corruption  which  they  engendered.  So 
soon  as  the  stern,  honest,  uncompromising  men  of  the  Bevo- 
lution — men  who  had  been  trained  under  other  principles — 
passed  away,  the  new  order  of  things  began  to  manifest  itself 
in  political  circles,  and  from  them  extended  to  the  press,  to 
the  legislative  chambers,  to  the  primary  assemblies  of  the 
people,  and,  finally,  to  the  last  bulwarks  of  every  nation,  the 
judiciary  and  the  pulpit.  It  became  almost  impossible  to 
resist  the  torrent  of  evil,  and  men  at  last  began  to  call  good 
evil,  and  evil  good,  sweet  bitter,  and  bitter  sweet,  against  their 
own  better  sense  and  wiser  consciences.  What  was  expedient 
was  right;  what  was  popular  was  just;  what  was  low  and 
cunning  was  smiled  upon,  if  only  it  chanced  to  be  successful. 
No  government  could  endure  under  such  a  condition  of 
things.  No  people  could  work  out  any  destiny,  but  discord 
and  anarchy,  with  such  principles  festering  at  its  heart  What 
has  happened  was  inevitable.  The  irrepressible  conflict  be- 
tween the  slave  and  the  hireling  brought  it  to  a  point,  but  if 
that  had  never  existed,  some  other  discord  would  have  arisen, 
which  would  have  rent  asunder  a  people,  that,  even  in  its 
yet  early  manhood,  had  exhibited  and  gloried  in  the  vices 
of  a  nation  tottering  to  its  fall. 

The  question  then  recurs :  "  In  what  are  we  to  find  the 
causes  of  this  rapid  corruption  and  this  early  moral  obliquity? 
What  has  made  it  necessary,  ere  a  century  has  elapsed,  to 
remould  our  institutions,  and  to  look  with  dismay  upon  our 
late  fellow-citizens,  as  they  yield  up  to  passion  all  their  con- 
stitutional guarantees  and  bow,  without  a  struggle,  before  the 
decrees  of  a  maddened  people?"  And  my  answer  is:  "We 
can  find  them  in  the  principles  upon  which  we  planted  our 
Government ;  principles  which  have  reacted  upon  our  whole 
social  life ;  upon  our  politics,  upon  our  literature,  upon  our 
morals,  upon  our  religion,  upon  our  homes.  They  were  false 
2 


10  A  SERMON. 

and  unscriptural,  and  have  worked  out  very  soon  the  inevi- 
table law,  '  That  whatsoever  a  man  soweth,  that  shall  he 
also  reap.' " 

The  principle  upon  which  we  rested  our  Revolution,  that 
"taxation  without  representation  is  tyranny,"  was  clearly 
true,  and  our  forefathers  were  right  in  resisting  its  exercise 
and  in  meeting  its  encroachments  at  the  very  earliest  moment. 
The  time  had  come,  likewise,  when  it  was  well  for  us  to  man- 
age our  own  affairs,  and  to  be  independent  of  other  nations. 
But  there  was  no  necessity  to  cast  to  the  winds  all  conserva- 
tism and  to  lay  down  principles,  as  the  foundation  of  our 
Government,  which  were  contrary  to  Eevelation,  and,  there- 
fore, to  Truth.  Carried  away  by  our  opposition  to  monarchy 
and  an  established  Church,  we  declared  war  against  all 
authority  and  against  all  form.  The  reason  of  man  was 
exalted  to  an  impious  degree,  and  in  the  face  not  only  of  ex- 
perience, but  of  the  revealed  word  of  God,  all  men  were 
declared  to  be  created  equal,  and  man  was  pronounced  capable 
of  self-government.*  Two  greater  falsehoods  could  not  have 
been  announced — falsehoods,  because  the  one  struck  at  the 
whole  constitution  of  civil  society  as  it  had  ever  existed,  and 
because  the  other  virtually  denied  the  fall  and  corruption  of 
man.  If  man  is  capable  of  self-government,  what  need  of  any 
government  at  all  ?  If  man  is  wise  enough  and  virtuous 
enough  to  manage  not  only  his  own  affairs,  but  to  conduct 
with  brotherly  love — loving  his  neighbor  as  himself — all  his 
relations  with  his  fellow  man,  why  such  an  apparatus  of 
machinery  as  is  every  where  required  for  the  adminis- 
tration of  justice?  Man  is  not  capable  of  self-government, 
because  he  is  a  fallen  creature,  and  interest,  passion, 
ambition,  lust,  sway  him  far  more  than  reason  or  honor. 
As   for  equality  among  men,  whether  by  creation  or  birth, 

*As  this  expression  may  be  susceptible  of  misconception,  inasmuch  as  any 
Government  which  may  be  framed  by  a  people,  however  well  checked  and 
balanced,  is  to  a  certain  extent  self-government,  I  would  state  that  my  argument 
is  directed  against  that  doctrine  which  blasphemously  affirms  the  "  vox  populi " 
to  be  the  "  vox  Dei,"  and  which  would  maintain  that  the  will  of  a  majority 
must  always  be  right  and  should  always  rule — a  doctrine  from  which  we  have 
been  just  forced  to  escape. 


A  SERMON.  11 

or  in  any  other  way,  it  is  a  miserable  ignis  fatuus,  not 
worthy  to  be  followed,  even  for  the  purpose  of  exposure. 
Upon  principles  as  false  and  as  foolish  as  these  was  our  late 
Government  founded,  and  although  wise  men  attempted  to 
place  conservative  barriers  around  their  exercise,  and  did  pre- 
serve them,  during  their  life  time,  against  the  working  of 
the  principles  which  were  perpetually  undermining  them, 
when  they  passed  away,  the  process  of  demolition  fairly  com- 
menced, and  it  required  but  a  man's  life  time — and  that  not  a 
long  one— to  place  every  thing  that  was  valuable  in  home  and 
in  society  at  the  mercy  of  the  demagogues,  who  sounded  these 
false  doctrines  in  the  ears  of  an  irresponsible  multitude.  Like 
the  spawn  of  error  in  Spenser's  allegory,  the  moment  they 
were  born,  they  began  to  gnaw  upon  the  vitals  of  their 
mother.  If  all  men  are  created  equal,  (thus  consequentially 
did  they  carry  out  the  principle),  then  should  there  be  no 
classification  of  society,  no  master  and  no  slave,  no 
capitalist  and  no  workman,  no  rich  and  no  poor,  no  learned 
and  no  ignorant  If  all  men  are  created  equal,  then  is  the 
Governor  no  better,  no  wiser,  no  more  to  be  honored  than  the 
governed ;  then  is  the  Judge  to  be  no  more  learned,  no  more 
experienced,  no  more  reverenced,  than  the  parties  at  the  bar ; 
then  is  the  Priest  to  be  no  more  holy,  no  more  educated  in 
sacred  things,  no  more  consecrated  to  his  divine  office,  than 
the  people;  then  is  the  father  to  be  as  the  child,  and  the 
grey  hair  and  the  reverend  form  to  be  upon  a  level  with  the 
presumptuous  youth.  If  man  is  capable  of  self-government, 
then  is  the  whole  framework  of  civil  society  to  be  arranged 
by  the  will  of  a  majority;  then  are  no  guarantees  necessary 
for  life  or  for  property ;  then  are  rulers  from  the  highest  to 
the  lowest  to  be  placed  or  displaced  by  caprice  or  faction ; 
then  is  the  sacred  ermine  of  justice  to  be  dragged  through 
the  mire  of  party,  and  to  be  soiled  by  all  the  miserable  influ- 
ences of  selfishness.  Such  are  the  legitimate  fruits  of  these 
principles,  and  they  have  been  produced  to  the  destruction  of 
our  country.  Like  the  apples  of  Sodom,  they  were  fair 
to  the  eye  and  looked  bright  and  healthful,  but  they  have 
turned  to  ashes  in  the  mouth.     To  our  cost  have  we  found 


12  A  SERMON. 

that  they  would  be  utterly  destructive  not  only  to  our  interests 
but  to  the  peace  of  our  whole  social  life,  and  we  have  with, 
drawn  from  those,  who  were  prepared  to  carry  them  out  to  their 
full  desolation,  and  to  make  us  the  first  victims  of  their 
triumphant  exercise. 

This  picture  has  not  been  overdrawn.  It  is  the  stern  truth, 
and  is  witnessed  to  by  the  condition  of  society  wherever  they 
have  had  full  sway.  Among  us  they  have  been  partially 
checked  in  their  operation  by  our  adherence  to  the  doctrine  of 
State  Sovereignty  and  by  the  institution  of  slavery,  which  has 
forced  upon  us  a  certain  measure  of  conservatism.  The  false- 
ness of  these  principles  was  too  glaring  to  us  to  permit  us  to 
be  entirely  carried  away  by  them.  But  even  we  have  felt 
their  influence  in  those  arrangements  of  society  which  were  not 
immediately  connected  with  our  local  interests  or  local  institu- 
tions. Where  is  there,  even  among  us,  guarded  and  protected 
as  we  have  been,  any  reverence  for  age,  or  authority,  or  ex- 
perience? "What  boy  is  there  who  does  not  think  himself 
capable  of  self-government,  fit  for  any  position ;  who  is  not 
quite  ready  to  sneer  at  the  past  and  to  consider  the  wisdom  of 
the  old  as  the  dotage  of  infirmity  ?  What  man  is  there  who 
does  not  deem  himself  qualified  to  fill  any  office,  or  to  discuss 
and  criticise  any  matter,  even  though  he  may  never  have  ap- 
plied an  hour's  study  or  a  moment's  thought  upon  it  ?  What 
politician  will  dare  to  stand  up  and  tell  the  people  that  they 
are  wrong,  or  fill  the  breach  when  they  rush  to  the  assault 
upon  any  of  the  institutions  of  the  land  ?  What  power  has 
philosophy  or  morals,  or  even  religion,  against  the  popular 
will  ?  Have  not  all  the  conservative  influences  of  our  General 
and  State  Governments  been  progressively  overturned,  and 
new  doctrines,  all  based  upon  these  principles,  been  worked 
into  the  public  opinion  of  the  people  ?  It  is  fearful  to  perceive 
what  a  low  tone  of  ethics  pervades  our  literature  and  our 
press  ;  how  morality  has  been  dissevered  from  religion  ;  how 
all  form,  which  at  last  is  the  embodiment  of  spirit,  is  ridi- 
culed and  scorned.  And  when  we  read  our  Bibles,  and  note 
the  catalogue  of  vices  which  St.  Paul  said  should  characterize 
the  perilous  times  of  the  last  days,  we  shudder  at  the  number 


A  SERMON.  13 

of  thern  which  have  been  the  legitimate  fruits  of  our  national 
principles.  "  This  know  also,"  writes  he,  "  that  in  the  last  days 
perilous  times  shall  come,  for  men  shall  be  lovers  of  their  own 
selves,  covetous,  boasters,  proud,  blasphemers,  disobedient  to 
parents,  unthankful,  unholy,  false  accusers,  incontinent,  fierce, 
despisers  of  those  that  are  good,  heady,  highminded,  lovers  of 
pleasure  more  than  lovers  of  God ;  having  the  form  of  god- 
liness, but  denying  the  power  thereof."  '  Of  his  whole 
catalogue  I  have  omitted  but  three  classes,  which  may  yet  be 
developed,  ere  our  struggle  is  at  an  end:  "Without  natural 
affection,  truce  breakers  and  traitors."  Is  not  this  enough  to 
make  us  tremble  ?  Does  it  not  bear  out  every  thing  which  I 
have  written  and  spoken  this  day  ?  Well  for  us  that  we  have 
burst  the  bonds  which  bound  us  to  such  principles !  Better 
for  us,  if  we  shall  be  able,  by  the  grace  of  God  and  the  virtue 
which  is  left  in  us,  to  put  our  "  new  wine  into  new  bottles." 

It  is  useless,  upon  these  days  of  humiliation,  in  which  we 
come  before  God  to  repent  of  our  national  sins,  to  spend  our 
confession  and  our  penitence  upon  the  mere  excrescences 
which  show  themselves  upon  the  surface.  It  is  a  mockery  of 
God,  who  looks  far  beneath  that  surface,  and  who  sees  and 
knows  that  a  corrupt  tree  can  never  bring  forth  good  fruit. 
He  expects  us  to  pierce  to  the  core,  to  dig  down  and  stir  up  to 
the  very  roots  whence  spring  these  wretched  consequences. 
Unless  we  do  this,  He  will  not  help  us.  "  Be  not  deceived ; 
God  is  not  mocked."  He  sees  where  the  difficulty  is,  at  what 
door  the  sin  lies,  and  He  sees,  moreover,  that  we  know  it,  and 
have  not  the  courage  to  avow  it.  But  unless  we  do  confess  it 
and  humble  ourselves  before  Him,  and  ask  Him  to  remove 
away  from  us  these  idols  of  "human  reason,"  and  "man's 
natural  virtue,"  all  our  present  struggles  shall  be  in 
vain ;  our  valor,  our  sacrifices,  our  own  blood  and  the 
blood  of  our  children,  shall  all  have  been  spent  for  nought. 
The  new  wine  will  burst  the  old  bottles  and  be  spilled,  and  the 
old  bottles  shall  perish,  the  example  and  scorn  of  the  world. 
Let  those  whom  we  have  left  go  on,  if  they  please — but  God 
forbid,  for  their  sakes,  that  they  should — upon  such  infidel 
principles ;  but  let  us,  now  that  we  have  the  opportunity,  re- 


14  A  SERMON. 

trace  our  steps,  and  take  once  more  to  our  arms  the  word  of 
God  and  the  wisdom  of  God. 

But  you  may  ask :  "To  what  does  all  this  tend  ?  Shall  we 
go  back  to  monarchy,  to  aristocracy,  to  an  established 
Church  ?"  Better,  far  better  that,  than  to  run  into  anarchy, 
pass  through  the  fierce  fires  of  infidelity  and  licentiousness, 
and  then  end  in  a  stern  military  despotism.  But  neither  is 
necessary.  The  form  of  a  Government  is  not  the  important 
point ;  it  is  the  principles.  Kepublicanism  has  not  saved  us 
from  tyranny  and  oppression,  and  monarchy  has  not  deprived 
England  of  freedom.  The  cruelty  of  any  king  is  tender  mer- 
cies to  the  cruelty  of  an  unbridled  multitude.  It  is  not  the 
shape  which  the  Government  has  taken  that  is  our  danger ; 
nay,  that  arrangement  of  wheel  within  wheel,  of  a  State  Gov- 
ernment exercising  sovereign  powers  within  a  General 
Government,  has  been  our  preservation,  the  very  ark  of  our 
safety.  It  is  the  principles  which  lie  at  the  foundation  of  a 
Government  and  which  will  flow  out  from  that  Govern- 
ment and  pervade  every  department  of  civil  and  social 
life,  that  is  our  peril.  Poland  was  a  monarchy,  but  the 
principle  of  equality  among  the  nobles  produced  pre- 
cisely the  like  consequences  as  those  which  have  sprung 
from  the  principle  of  equality  here.  The  remedy  is  not 
in  any  change  of  Government,  but  in  the  modification  of 
principles,  which,  having  the  prestige  of  authority,  have  in- 
fluenced the  whole  spirit  of  the  people,  and  have  rendered 
irreverence,  insubordination,  presumption,  recklessness,  of  the 
very  essence  of  the  national  character.  Like  Laocoon  and  his 
children,  we  have  been  enfolded  and  crushed  by  the  serpents 
which  have  issued  from  our  own  altars. 

We  must  go  back  to  the  principles  of  the  Bible,  if  we  would 
find  our  permanent  remedy,  and  reject  as  infidel  any  faith  in 
man's  virtuous  self-government,  any  idea  that  society  or 
government  can  exist  without  due  classification.  Subordina- 
tion reigns  supreme  in  Heaven,  and  it  must  reign  supreme  on 
earth.  Subordination,  not  inferiority ;  they  are  very  different 
things.  The  one  is  the  obedience  and  the  reverence  of  duty ; 
the  other  of  degradation.     The  one  finds  honor  and  glory  in 


A  SERMON".  15 

being  true  and  faithful  to  its  position ;  the  other  has  no  merit, 
because  it  fills  but  its  own  proper  place.  The  one  has  sublime 
examples  in  the  subordination  of  the  Church  to  Christ,  in  the 
subordination  of  the  Son  of  God  to  his  Almighty  Father ;  the 
other  has  its  illustrations  only  in  the  natural  gradation  of 
created  things.  "Without  this  discrimination  between  subordi- 
nation and  inferiority,  there  can  be  no  highly  civilized  society. 
It  is  the  support  of  all  authority,  the  true  moral  principle  of 
all  order  in  social  life.  When  the  Spartan  youths  all  rose  upon 
the  entrance  of  an  old  man  into  their  assembly,  they  exhibit- 
ed the  true  meaning  of  subordination,  and  honored  themselves 
while  they  displayed  the  high  principles  of  their  civilization? 
Pagans  though  they  were. 

In  this  country  there  is  nothing  to  keep  man  in  check  except 
the  principles  which  he  himself  may  lay  at  the  foundation  of 
his  government,  and  which  may  extend  their  influence 
through  all  the  phases  of  social  life.  Military  power  is 
the  arm  of  despotism  for  preserving  order.  We  know,  except 
in  war,  no  such  instrument.  We  are  dependent  upon  the 
people  themselves  for  the  preservation  of  order,  and  unless 
they  shall  be  trained  to  be  the  guardians  of  law,  there  can  be 
no  law.  When  the  very  principles  upon  which  a  Government 
and  its  civilization  rest  lead  inevitably  to  disorder  and  to 
irreverence,  how  can  you  look  for  the  virtues  which  are  the 
only  support  of  any  Government  ?  You  may  as  well  expect 
grapes  from  thorns  or  figs  from  thistles.  The  remedy  for  all 
this  lies  not  in  any  change  in  the  form  of  our  Government, 
but  in  persuading  ourselves,  who  are  the  people,  to  surround 
ourselves  once  more  with  Constitutional  arrangements,  which 
shall  be  a  bulwark  against  our  own  capricious  or  passionate 
impulses,  and 'which  shall  give  the  lie  to  any  demagogue 
who  shall  attempt  to  persuade  us  that  we  are  capable 
at  all  times  of  governing  ourselves,  and  that  every  one 
of  us  is  the  equal  of  his  fellow.  We  should  at  once 
endeavor  to  put  it  out  of  our  own  power  to  corrupt  our- 
selves, by  laying  down  fundamental  propositions  of  the 
most  conservative  character,  and  adhering  to  them  through 
good  report  and  through  evil  report.     If  in  this   moment 


16  A  SERMON. 

of  our  soberness  and  of  our  sadness,  we  could  break 
up  our  old  bottles,  and  put  our  wine  into  new  bottles,  framed 
out  of  stuff  which  has  stood  the  experience  of  ages,  we  should 
have  cause  to  bless  this  revolution  all  the  days  of  our  history. 
"  But  as  no  man  having  drunk  old  wine  straightway  desireth 
new,  for  he  saitb  the  old  is  better,"  the  question  comes  up  by 
what  means  may  these  old  principles  be  done  away  with  and 
new  ones  be  introduced  ?  And  I  rejoice  to  say  that  already 
have  our  Governments,  both  State  and  Confederate,  made 
some  movements  in  the  direction  of  Faith  and  of  conser- 
vatism. The  recognition  of  God  in  our  Constitution — would 
it  had  been  a  clear,  plain  recognition  of  Christ — is  in  itself  a 
step  almost  equivalent  to  that  which  France  made  in  her  re- 
action from  atheism  to  Christian ity.  We  have  scarcely 
realized,  my  Christian  hearers,  what  was  the  position  of  the 
old  Government  in  its  relation  to  God.  It  was  as  atheistic  as 
France  in  her  worst  days  of  wild  revolution.  The  Goddess  of 
Reason,  'tis  true,  was  not  paraded  through  our  streets  and  per- 
sonified in  the  high  seats  of  legislation  under  the  form  of  an 
harlot,  but  God  was  as  completely  ignored  and  the  perfectibili- 
ty of  man  placed  in  his  stead.  No  such  thing  is  on  record 
any  where  in  the  world,  whether  among  barbarian  or  civilized 
people,  that  a  nation  had  no  recognized  God !  We  deem  it 
the  height  of  superstition,  when  we  read  of  the  Pantheon  at 
Rome,  in  which  were  gathered  all  the  Gods  of  all  the  nations, 
that  honor  might  be  done  to  all.  But  what  was  our  country, 
as  it  stood  under  the  old  Constitution,  but  a  Pantheon,  in 
which  every  man  worshipped  his  own  idol  and  demanded  the 
protection  of  the  Government  in  his  folly?  Thank  God,  we 
have  washed  out  that  stain,  and  if  we  have  not  yet  distinctly 
proclaimed  ourselves  a  Christian  nation,  we  are  at  least  a  nation 
of  Theists — men  who  recognize  the  presence  of  God  in  the 
affairs  of  the  world.  That  is  a  point  gained ;  a  step  out  of 
darkness  into  light ;  and  for  that  He  may  bless  us  and  give  us 
more  light.  We  need  it  sadly  upon  our  path,  for  we  have  to 
tread  our  way  back,  through  peril  and  blood,  to  the  great 
principles  of  faith  and  honesty,  which  underlie  all  well  estab- 
lished Governments.     Already  have  our  people  willingly  laid 


A  SERMON.  17 

down  upon  the  altar  of  their  country  some  of  the  false  princi- 
ples which  they  had  been  tempted  to  try,  and  have  evinced  a 
willingness  to  distrust  themselves.  May  the  good  work  go  on 
until  our  children  shall  regain  what  we  have  lost;  until 
authority  shall  be  reverenced,  because  it  is  ordained  of  (rod ; 
until  justice  shall  be  made  independent  of  either  money  or  fac- 
tion ;  until  religion  shall  throw  aside  its  mere  spiritualism,  and 
shall  become  the  conservator  of  morals  as  well  as  a  guide  to 
Heaven. 

It  may  be  that  the  bloody  war  in  which  we  are  engaged  is 
necessary  for  our  purification.  War  is  a  fearful  scourge,  as 
God's  word  plainly  tells  us ;  but  it  may  sanctify  as  well  as 
chasten,  it  may  purge  out  our  old  dross,  even  though  it  be 
through  the  fires  of  affliction.  It  may  be  our  moral  as  well  as 
our  political  safety.  The  infidel  principles  which  I  have  been 
discussing  have,  even  in  a  century,  struck  deep  root  into  the 
minds  and  hearts  of  our  countrymen,  and  it  requires  an  equally 
deep  cautery  to  burn  them  out.  Had  our  separation  been  a 
peaceful  one,  we  should  have  gone  on  as  before,  trusting  in 
what  are  called  the  principles  of  American  independence,  ex- 
pecting to  find  permanent  prosperity  under  the  old  popular  doc- 
trines of  the  land.  Our  people  had  great  faith  in  the  form  which 
freedom  had  assumed  in  this  land,  because  they  attributed  to 
it  the  unexampled  physical  prosperity  which  encompassed 
them.  Its  evil  principles  had  not  yet  been  worked  out  to 
their  perception,  although  discerning  minds  have  long  fore- 
seen the  coming  catastrophe.  This  cruel  war,  together  with  the 
rapid  crushing  out  at  the  North  of  all  freedom  of  thought  and 
of  action,  will  enable  them  to  understand  clearly  the  effects  of 
principles  which  would  leave  no  checks  and  balances  in  a 
Government,  and  which  make  the  multitude  believe  that  their 
will  should  override  all  law  and  all  constitutions.  It  will  be 
easier  then,  perhaps,  to  persuade  them  to  drink  the  new  wine, 
when  they  shall  have  seen  the  deleterious  effects  of  the  old. 
Besides  this,  war  will  necessarily,  when  it  presses  upon  us 
with  severity,  as  it  is  likely  now  to  do,  quell  faction,  break  up 
party  spirit,  bring  out  patriotism,  valor,  self-denial,  heroism, 
which,  although  they  be  worldly  virtues,  are  far  better  than 


18  A  SERMON. 

selfishness  and  a  narrow-minded  avarice.  It  will  stir  up  all 
the  energies  of  the  people,  which  were  stagnating  under  the 
effects  of  indolence  and  isolation.  It  will  drive  the  islander 
from  his  sea-girt  home,  in  which  the  winds  and  the  waves 
were  soothing  him  to  sleep  with  their  wild  lullaby ;  it  will 
bring  the  mountaineer  from  his  lonely  valley,  where  his  mind 
was  circumscribed  by  its  crags  and  precipices,  and  it  will 
mingle  them  with  the  great  mass  of  the  people,  and  out  of  the 
crucible  will  come  a  nation,  with  larger  views,  with  nobler 
feelings,  with  energies  high  strung  for  all  the  purposes  of 
national  life.  And  this  people,  thrown  upon  its  own  resources, 
will  develope  them  by  their  own  industry,  and  mingling 
through  commerce  with  the  world,  will  learn  the  value  of 
virtues  which  they  have  hitherto  permitted  to  slumber,  will 
open  their  minds  to  perceive  that  other  nations  may  teach  them 
lessons  not  only  of  literature  and  science,  but  of  freedom  and 
government.  And  thus  will  they  learn  the  true  value  of 
Liberty.  To  use  the  rich  language  of  Macauley :  "At  times 
she  takes  the  form  of  a  hateful  reptile — she  grovels,  she  hisses; 
she  stings — but  woe  to  those  who  in  disgust  shall  venture  to 
crush  her.  And  happy  are  those  who,  having  dared  to  re- 
ceive her  in  her  degraded  and  frightful  shape,  shall  at  length 
be  rewarded  by  her  in  the  time  of  her  beauty  and  her  glory." 


